Mireland (subject to change... very subject to change)

So basically here's a quick backstory. I started working on this map since mid-late august, around 2-3 hours a day with some loose plannage. I kept wondering about the release, but not releasing it. Finally, about a week ago, I decided to debug it and release as-is.

As for the map:
What I want to call ctf_bog (but I find it too boring) I ended up calling ctf_mireland. It is a symmetrical sort of 'c' shaped level, with a lake in the middle. This gives the player three basic routes, go alone the dock, through the boathouse, or through the water. As for the flag, I tried to make it fairly engie-free, and if it is not, which it may be, I will change it to be so. The flag is positioned so that one entrance is next to a spawn room, while another entrance is in sort of an 'atrium' with another entrance to the second spawn room. Currently I would love to know if there is a way to make it so people spawn wherever regardless of spawn room.

I know there are huge sightlines, and I tried to minimize this with some impromptu cover that will be later detailed in beta.

Known issues:
1) the sightlines
2) Map layout is very simple. Later in the alphas I'm going to add a 2fort-esque horizontal tunnel on dock-level above the lake as well, potentially replacing the lakehouse at the bottom. Also, as for the big dev-buildings in the back, I have several ideas of implementing playable space in there as well that will add more routes to the flag room, and more general complexity to the spawn room.

This map is not intended to be perfect. It is my first map I plan to release however, and if it were graded, I would like it to be in the 'b' range (4/5). This is mostly because I have ideas for other layouts of maps that I think are more exciting, but I don't want to double up until later into this map's alpha's.

Finally, when I started this map, I was not familiar at all with any sort of dev process, so expect some random detail here and there.

I actually like the overall atmosphere. It's sort of a fresh take. I do agree with the lamp post idea though. Just in the areas where it's really dark. For example, on the screen shot overlooking the lake and the front of one of the bases, the left side, particularly that alcove between the buildings, could use some extra light. I say stick with the general atmosphere and tone, but go ahead and stick some extra lights to maximize visability.

I would especially light up the areas where spies, engies and even snipers might hang out because it will minimize making them uber-effective because other classes can't pick them out of the map, but still leave them cover that they need to work with.

Ended work on first map - walking away with lessons learned.

Prototyping and doing concept work for ctf_drawbridge - geometry work starts soon.

Looking at the screenshots it does look to be a little to open in that first shot and overall i would agree with everyone else as far as looking too dark. I like the atmosphere of it.. just lighten it up some =)

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Yeah I'm trying to lighten up the bottom, but the top is also a good idea. Look for this in a2 as well as some new sightline stoppers.. I might also try for some lake mist if there's a second fog entity I could incorporate. I also forgot to mention that the spawns get longer per cap, so a team with 2/3 caps might have a 10-15 second respawn while a team with none will have shorter 5-8 second respawns.

The right side of the map (to blue team, I think) could see into the void (yet the water rendered, doesnt that mean the map is sealed? It was weird), and it was overall huge. Also, some models not being there, Im guessing custom ones.

Hmm, very dark. I basically avoided large parts of the map because it was too hard to track/identify targets. This was very true for the whole bottom area, some spotlights beaming down on parts there, or lanterns as suggested previous would really help.

Aside from that the map is very big and it feels like you can't intercept flag carriers or assaults in general when they happen unless you are in key parts of the map like the base.

I think you could shrink the middle area down quite a bit. Lots of straight corridor style areas that don't need to be such a long gauntlet.

Making it easier to establish an outpost in middle parts of the map would be really good, I think.

Bases lack flanking dynamic, sort of felt like demo or uber was the only way to push in if there was any defense.

Overall the theme and layout concept are good in theory, they just need a fair bit of implementation work.